I mean everyone! They’ve all seen you and—” She breaks off, suddenly becoming incredibly interested in her soda.
Which seems like it bodes badly for me. Very, very badly. “Exactly how many people have seen me, Macy? You said I was in your dad’s office and then tucked away in the library.”
“You were! But you’ve got to understand: you were frozen in stone for almost four months. Dad and Jaxon nearly lost their minds with worry.”
“I thought you said being a gargoyle is cool.”
“Being a gargoyle is cool. Being stuck as a gargoyle…not so much. They tried everything to get you to turn back—and ‘everything’ meant consulting as many different experts around the world as they could find. And the experts all wanted to see you, because they didn’t believe you were a gargoyle. They thought you’d been cursed by a witch or a siren or something. And then, when word got out that you really were a gargoyle…well, they all demanded to see you before they would consult.”
I get up and start to pace the room. “So, what? They all just flew to Alaska to get an in-person chance to examine me?”
“Of course they did!” She shoots me an exasperated look. “I feel like you’re not fully comprehending the whole only-one-in-existence thing. The experts would have flown to the moon, if that’s where they had to go to see you. Not to mention, Jaxon and my dad would have flown them to the moon themselves if they thought it would help you.”
I get that. It even makes a twisted kind of sense to me. And yet I still can’t get over feeling squicked out at people I don’t know examining me when I was totally out of it. And Jaxon and my uncle allowing it.
It’s not even that I don’t understand why they did it. I think about if my parents had survived that car accident and were in comas or something. If they needed medical care, I would have done anything I could to make sure they got it.
Not going to lie, though. It just feels like one more thing I’ve lost. And one more thing I couldn’t afford to lose.
I stop pacing and sink back onto my bed in defeat.
“Grace?” Macy comes over to sit next to me, and for the first time since we ran into each other in the foyer, she looks concerned. “Are you okay? I know this is a lot, but I swear, it’s a good thing. You’ve just got to give it a chance.”
“What about my memory?” I swallow the lump in my throat, because I don’t cry in front of people, even my best friends. “What if it never comes back? I know I was turned to stone, and maybe the reason I don’t remember anything is because there’s nothing to remember.”
She shakes her head. “I don’t believe that.”
“That’s just it. Neither do I.” I start to speak half a dozen times, then stop myself just as many because nothing I’m going to say feels right.
Macy’s quiet for a moment before she reaches over to squeeze my hand. “Let’s just take it one day at a time for a couple of days. See what shakes loose as you settle into a routine. I promise, it’s going to be all right.” She smiles encouragingly. “Okay?”
I nod, the knot that’s been in my stomach for hours finally beginning to dissolve. “Okay.”
“Good.” She gives me a wicked little grin. “Now, let’s put on some of these face masks. I’ll fill you in on the gossip you missed, and you can tell me all about what it’s like to be mated.”
17
Tunnel Vision
I can’t sleep.
I don’t know if it’s because I’ve spent the last four months sleeping or if it’s because of everything that’s happened today. Maybe it’s a combination of both.
Probably it’s a combination of both.
Losing your memory will do that to a girl. So will finding out that the boy you’re in love with, your mate, is the boy—the man—you’re going to spend the rest of your life with.
Macy was all excited about it, going on and on about how lucky I am to have found Jaxon when I’m seventeen years old. I don’t have to go through jerks like Cam (apparently, she and Cam broke up, badly, while I was busy being a statue) while I wait, and I don’t have to worry about never finding my mate (apparently, this happens more frequently than it should). I have a mate and, according to